Tapped Out

I woke up this morning and got ready for a much-needed shower. In nothing but a towel, I walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower and not even a single drip of water emerged. I kept trying, but I got nothing but the faint gurgle of bubbles from the bottom of the pipe. I went to the sink and washed my face with some drips of water. Oh great, I thought, I broke the house again.

When I went to the office, I noticed there was no water there either. So it wasn't me, Thandanani's property has no water. Okay.

But then I talked to Ma Zandi. She lives about 30 minutes from here in the iMbali township, and as she was sweeping the floor she told me that to cook dinner last night she put a bucket out to collect rain water. The water pumps in her township also have no water. Then Agnes came by my office and said, "How are we supposed to survive with no water? Where is South Africa's water?" Apparently Agnes' township, which is farther out than Ma Zandi's, also has no water. "I have a caregivers meeting today," she continued, "but I don't think more than two will come because they will be trying to find water for their families."

This means that there is at least a 30-minute radius around Pietermaritzburg without water. It is annoying for me, but I can manage without flushing toilets for the day. What worries me is the massive population of people in the surrounding townships that have no water. In already impoverished conditions, they now have no clean water. Their water pumps are dried out. This is dangerous. Water is life!

It makes me wonder if this has something to do with the municipality bankruptcy, or the strike of the municipal workers... but I would like to think that if people were to turn off the water for thousands of people to make a point in a strike, they would have the decency to warn them. I have a feeling a large pipe broke somewhere and it cut off the water for this area.

*the picture above was taken by one of my workshop students; it is a community waterpump.